Prentice Boy- Mrs. Tillett (NC) 1923 Brown L
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore Volume 2, Ballads, 1952. Their (Belden and all) notes follow. Six double stanza and 1/2 more make 13 stanzas.
R. Matteson 2017]
Brown Collection Notes:
104 The Sailor Boy
This song was printed by Catnach and Such and probably by other ballad printers in England in the last century and is widely known and sung. See BSM 186, and add to the references there given Maine (MWS 56-9), Virginia (FSV 108-11, 118), North Carolina (BMFSB 24-5, SFLQ v 146), Arkansas (OFS I 300), Missouri (OFS I 296-300), Ohio (BSO 97-103), Indiana (BSI 269-70), Illinois (JAFL XL 235-6), and Michigan (BSSM 94, blended with 'The Butcher Boy'). Barry listed it among the ballads in his collection from the North Atlantic States but did not print it. Like other items of the folk song of unhappy love its content is likely to vary; with its central images of the girl bidding her father build her a boat and later demanding of the sailors she meets news of her sailor boy may be combined motives from 'The Butcher Boy,' 'Little Sparrow,' 'The Lass of Roch Royal,' or an elaborate preliminary story may be provided as in version L below.
L. 'The Prentice Boy.' Contributed in 1923 by Mrs. Charles K. Tillett of Wanchese, Roanoke Island. Here the story of 'The Sailor Boy' is combined with or rather added to the stall ballad of 'The Prentice Boy,' reported — but without the 'Sailor Boy' element — from Nova Scotia (SENS 304-5) and (with a quite different text but still without the element from our song) from Missouri (OFS i 429-31)- In the closing stanzas it drifts into 'The Butcher Boy.'
1 The prentice boy and he was bound
To sail the raging seas around;
And just before [he be] came twenty-one
He fell in love with a fine young girl.
He went to the captain and begun to tell,
About this lady he loved so well:
'I love her as I do my life,
And what would I give she was my wife!'
2 'Oh hush, oh hush, you silly boy.
You love a girl you'll never enjoy;
For she has lovers one, two, three,
And she'll be married before you're free.'
'Anyhow, I'll go and see;
Perhaps that girl will fancy me.'
He bought fine rings, he bought fine gloves,
The prentice to enfent[1] his love.
3 She was not ashamed among them all
To take them from the prentice boy.
She was not ashamed among them all
To own she loved the prentice boy.
The very last time he saw his love
She was standing on Potomac shore.
With her bright hair and sparkling eyes
For him she lives, for him she dies.
4 'Oh, father, oh, father, go build me a boat
That on this ocean I may float,
And hailing ships as they pass by,
Inquiring for my prentice boy.'
She hadn't been sailing very far
Before she met a man of war,
Crying, 'Captain, captain, tell me true.
Does my sweet Willie sail with you?'
5 'What color was your Willie's hair.
What color clothes did your Willie wear?'
'His hair is light, his clothes are blue,
And you may know his love is true.'
'No, gay lady, he's not here.
But in the deep, I'm a-fear;
For as Green Island we passed by
We lost five men and your sailor boy.'
6. She wrung her hands and she tore her hair,
Like a pretty fair maid all in despair.
Against wild rocks her boat she flung.
Saying, 'How can I live and my Willie gone?
Now, captain, bring me a chair and set it down' —
With pen and ink she wrote it down.
On every line she dropped a tear.
And every verse cried, 'Oh, my dear!'
7. 'Now dig my grave both wide and deep,
A marble tomb at my head and feet;
A turtle dove put on my grave,
To let the world know that I died of love !'
1. So the manuscript seems to read. Is it for "enchant" ?